Dear fellow swimmers

This week, those of you in the UK will have been reminded that winter hasn’t quite gone away, despite the days slowly getting longer. The Thames, where I swim, almost reached double digits last week but is now back below 3ºC. Still, the frosty mornings deliver the best sunrises.

In this week's newsletter, find out what happens to your body when you go cold water swimming as Dr Susanna Søberg tells us about the activation of brown fat and the difference between cold water swimming and taking cold showers. Coach Cassie Patten explains how to improve your head-up breaststroke while avoiding neck pain and we speak to writer and producer Cat White about Fifty Four Days, a film about a spirited young woman who turns to wild swimming in search of answers after a profound loss.

In other news, this week I went to Thames Waters’ public consultation (read: PR presentation) on their proposals to improve water supplies over the next 50 years. I haven’t had time to fully digest their proposals but one that concerns me – partly for selfish reasons – is the suggestion to remove water from the Thames at my usual swimming spot and pump it into storage reservoirs, then replace that water with treated effluent from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works. Read more about the proposals and how to respond here. We will be looking into this in more detail and trying to understand the implications.

There was also much excitement this week as we sent our February edition to press. The theme of the issue is 'CHALLENGE', which we explore in all its nuances with stories of the first blind woman attempting to swim the Channel, Jasmine Harrison's pioneering full length of the UK swim, an investigation into how how open water challenges shape outdoor swimming and a remarkable new challenge comprising five 5km swims aimed at swimmers with disabilities called the Para V. 

Want to get a copy delivered to your door? Subscribe now and you will receive two months for the price of one. Plus, as part of our continued efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, we will plant a tree for every new subscriber. 

Finally, I’m a guest of Alpkit Kingston next Thursday, when I’ll be talking about swimming in the Thames – please do join me!  

Warm wishes

Simon Griffiths

Founder & Publisher